Clint Van Zandt

msnbc analyst

Clint Van Zandt is an msnbc analyst. Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, hostage negotiator, and U.S. Army intelligence agent, provides commentary and analysis on MSNBC on high-profile legal cases and crime stories including kidnappings and hostage situations.

Van Zandt is a U.S. Army and Vietnam War veteran with 25 years of experience with the FBI, including service as a behavioral profiler in the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit. He was also the FBI’s Chief Hostage Negotiator. Van Zandt now heads up Van Zandt Associates, an international group that assists corporations around the world with forensic and behavioral oriented threat and risk assessments.

Van Zandt has negotiated in numerous national and international kidnap, hostage, and barricade situations, and has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He was acknowledged as the team leader of the analytical team that assisted in the identification of the “Unabomber,” and correctly profiled Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on the day of that fateful bombing. Van Zandt also personally negotiated with Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh at Waco.

Clint has taught criminal justice courses in every state and to the representatives of more than 50 international governments and has assisted such governments in numerous criminal investigations. Van Zandt is also an author; his latest book is entitled “Facing Down Evil: Life on the Edge as an FBI Hostage Negotiator.”

In a highly-anticipated speech to Congress Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that a potential nuclear deal being negotiated by major powers including the United States "paves Iran's path to the bomb."